Philippines, Singapore sign new air services agreement

ABS-CBN News

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines and Singapore inked a new memorandum of understanding on air services late Thursday.

The new agreement will allow the increase in the number of seats on flights between the Philippines and Singapore, as well as expand fifth freedom rights.

"The parties signed a new MOU on air services expanding the exchange of traffic rights between the two countries," Civil Aeronautics Board executive director Carmelo Arcilla said.

Arcilla said the new agreement increased the number of seats to around 16,800 on the Manila-Singapore route per week for each country. The current number of seats is 13,800 per week for each country.

The agreement also expanded the fifth freedom rights, by adding China for Singapore and India for the Philippines. Fifth freedom rights refer to the airline's right to fly passengers to a third country from a country with which an airline's resident country has an outstanding air services agreement.

Arcilla also said that points outside Metro Manila should be unlimited, in line with current Philippine policy and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) multilateral agreements on air liberalization.

Among the Philippine carriers that fly to Singapre are Philippine Airlines, Cebu pacific and Tiger Airways Philippines.

This is the Philippines' second successful air talks this year. Last January 16, the Philippines inked a new air agreement with France, which allowed PAL to resume flights to Paris after 16 years.